Monday, October 24, 2011

Starring George Gobel, Mitzi Gaynor, David Niven, Fred Clark, Hans Conreid, Harry Bellaver, Charles Lane, Mary Treen, Reginald Gardiner, and Milton Frome. Directed by Norman Taurog. Remake of the 1941 film "The Lady Eve". On an ocean voyage a card shark and her father cheat a naive man out of his money but things take a twist when the girl falls in love with the man she's just fleeced.

Starring Danny Kaye, Virginia Mayo, Boris Karloff, Fay Bainter, George Chandler, Fritz Feld, Ann Rutherford, and Thurston Hall. Directed by Norman Z. McLeod. A mousy proofreader for a magazine publisher is incapable of standing up for himself. As he muses over the lurid covers of the magazines put out by his firm, he retreats into his fantasy world, where he is heroic, poised, self-assured, and the master of his fate. Glancing at the cover of a western periodical, he fancies himself the two-gun "Perth Amboy Kid"; a war magazine prompts him to envision himself as a fearless RAF pilot; and so on.

Starring Sidney Poitier, Tony Curtis, Rheodore Bikel, Lon Chaney Jr., Charles McGraw, Claude Akins, Whit Bissell, Cara Williams, and Carl "Alfalfa" Switzer. Directed by Stanley Kramer. Two convicts, one black, one white, who hate each other escape from a chain gang. Manacled together, they are forced to rely on each other to survive.

Starring Carroll Baker, Eli Wallach, Karl Malden, Mildred Dunnock, Rip Torn, Lonny Chapman, and Madeleine Sherwood. Diredted by Elia Kazan. The doltish, bigoted owner of a Southern cotton gin is married to a luscious teenager who steadfastly refuses to sleep with her husband until she reaches the age of 18. A crafty Sicilian covets both the man's wife and business. The husband jealously sets fire to the Sicilian's business, compelling him to try to claim Baby Doll as compensation.

Starring James Dean, Burl Ives, Raymond Massey, Julie Harris, Jo Van Fleet, Carolyn Jones, Pat Priest, and Albert Dekker. Directed by Elia Kazan. The son of lettuce farmer Adam Trask means well but can't stay out of trouble, nor is he able to match the esteem in which his father holds his brother Aaron . Only Aaron's girlfriend and the kindly old sheriff can see the essential goodness in the troublesome boy. When Adam invests in a chancy and wholly unsuccessful method of shipping his crops east his wealth plummets. In an effort to save the business, the boy obtains money from his estranged mother (the proprietor of a whorehouse) and invests it in a risky new bean crop. The gamble pays off (thanks in no small part to the war), but Adam refuses to take the money from his son and the resulting quarrel causes Adam to have a stroke.

Starring James Stewart, Henry Fonda, Shirley Jones, Sue Ane Langdon, Robert Middleton, Dabbs Greer, Arch Johnson, Jackie Joseph, J. Pat O'Malley, and John Dehner. Directed by Gene Kelly. A cowboy working with his friend for very little money gets word that his brother has left him The Cheyenne Social Club. They ride for near a thousand miles so the cowboy can claim his inheritance, only to find he is now the owner of a first class brothel.